Lia Chang: Spend Valentine’s Day with André De Shields in The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy, written by Lonnie Carter at the Abingdon Theatre

(L-R) Sean Phillips, André De Shields and Alexander Elisa in The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy. Imagine an episode of Law & Dis-Order: SV eeeeew! Double lippin’ and entenDRÉ flippin’ with Flavor Flav, Judge Judy, Angela Davis and the Mad Hatter. Photo by Lia Chang

Spend Valentine’s Day with multiple Tony nominee André De Shields (The Full Monty, Play On!, Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Wiz) in The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy.

Imagine an episode of Law & Dis-Order SV EWWWW! Double Lippin’ and entenDRÉ flippin’ with Flavor Flav, Judge Judy, Angela Davis and the Mad Hatter! You’ll experience this and more on Monday, February 14, when the Negro Ensemble presents a one-time only reading of The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy, written by Lonnie Carter, at 7:00 PM, in the June Havoc Theatre, at the Abingdon Theatre Complex, 312 West 36 Street, 2nd floor in New York. Tickets are $10 and can be reserved by calling 212-582-5860.

Lonnie Carter‘s play The Romance of Magno Rubio won 8 Obies for its Ma-Yi Theater production in 2003. A recent work The Lost Boys of Sudan was produced at the Childrens’ Theater Company in 2007 and Victory Gardens in Chicago in 2010. He teaches in the Dramatic Writing Program in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, twice a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, an alumnus of New Dramatists and The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and one of the founding members of the Victory Gardens Playwrights’ Ensemble. In a much earlier version The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy was read at the NEC with Douglas Turner Ward reading the role of Shadrach. It was subsequently produced at Victory Gardens and then Woodie King, Jr’s New Federal Theater with André De Shields playing the role of Nebuchadnezzar.

Castmembers Charlayne Woodard and André De Shields at their opening night benefit party for the Red Bull Theater’s Production of The Witch of Edmonton, at the Theatre at St. Clement’s in New York on January 30, 2011. Photo by Lia Chang

In a career spanning more than forty years, André De Shields has distinguished himself as an unparalleled actor, director, writer and educator. He is the recipient of the 2009 National Black Theatre Festival Living Legend Award, and the 2007 Village Voice OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance. Mr. De Shields is a multiple Tony Award nominee, and the author of the solo performance, MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY: Frederick Douglass. He is best known for his show stopping performances in the original Broadway productions of four legendary musicals: The Full Monty (Noah “Horse” T. Simmons), Play On! (Jester), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (The Viper) and the title role in The Wiz. He is currently appearing as the farmer Old Banks, in the critically acclaimed Red Bull Theater’s Off-Broadway production of The Witch of Edmonton, at the Theatre at St. Clement’s, which has been extended through February 20, 2011. A triple Capricorn, he is the ninth of eleven children born and reared in Baltimore, Maryland. www.andredeshields.com.

Billie Allen, Jennifer Ikeda and John Douglas Thompson were among the guests who came out to celebrate opening night with The Witch of Edmonton castmembers André De Shields, Christopher McCann and Charlayne Woodard, at the Theatre at St. Clement’s in New York on January 30, 2011. Check out the slideshow of photos from The Witch of Edmonton opening night party.

The mission of the Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (NEC) is to provide African-American, African and Caribbean professional artists with an opportunity to learn, to work, to grow and to be nurtured in the performing arts. The overall mission of the NEC is to present live theatre performances by and about black people to a culturally diverse audience that is often underserved by the theatrical community.

Monday, February 14, 2011The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy
Time: 7:00 PM
Place: June Havoc Theatre
Abingdon Theatre Complex
312 West 36 Street, 2nd floor
New York
Tickets are $10 and can be reserved by calling 212-582-5860

As a photographer and videographer, Lia collaborates with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive and social media presence. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden.

This year, selections of Lia’s archive of Asian Pacific Americans in the arts, fashion, journalism, politics and space will become part of newly created LIA CHANG THEATER PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO in the ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTION housed in the Library of Congress Asian Division’s Asian American Pacific Islander Collection.